


The Skeptic's Paradox

by JayBarou



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Nordic Mythology, Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 09:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7635427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayBarou/pseuds/JayBarou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is not archeological proof of worship or active cult to Loki, and Tony finds out why during his research time. Revelations lead to meetings that lead to plans, that not humans nor aliens are meant to understand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Skeptic's Paradox

Research was a big part of Tony’s life, and most people overlooked it in favor of explosions (Tony would have liked to be able to do the second without the first too, especially when he was younger). It was the whole reason why it looked like he could make shit up on the go. It wasn't all due to genius, or an eidetic memory, it was a lot of time spent researching and thinking and playing a thousand scenarios in his mind that were absolute rubbish. For example, he didn't have a magic superpower that helped him build his suit, thank you very much. That was cheating.

He had become an astrophysics' expert in a single night because he had already done most of that research when he worked on satellites years ago. He had simply brushed up a little, learnt a few foreign, more specific concepts, and add to his mental library a few recent discoveries, very doable in a single night. People didn't understand; for them genius meant that he knew everything without consulting, for some reason.

But now he was researching Norse gods, because Greenwich in the news had proved  that they might need it in the future. It had been a bad idea. Researching an old religion and trying to tell truth from ethic manipulation was so much worse than rocket science, not to mention that the timing didn’t match with what Thor told them. He could tell primary sources from secondary sources, he was sure that Snorri's Eddas were Christianized bullshit, so he started with the academic papers. That was a bit more like it.

That was how he found all the shades of gray that Germanic and Scandinavian people of old believed in. Belief was not based on some moral compass that dictated good or evil, but on a life dedicated to the role model one chose to follow and what one chose to hold as sacred. For example, if a believer decided to follow Thor, he had to devote his life to fight, Tyr for justice, Odin for wisdom and so on. No harm done if a Tyr believer didn't hold wisdom or fight as sacred.

And so, as with any label that organized the world in a neat little box, sorting was a temptation. Same with star-signs, MBTI personality profiles, races, genders, sexuality levels, and Hogwart houses. None of them meant jackshit (at least to Tony), but it was the kind of non-complex categorization that amused him and 4 billion humans.

So he decided: Tony and Bruce were science men so they were probably Odin's, Clint had to be Frigga's with the way he defended his family, Steve Mother-hen Rogers too, maybe even Pepper.

Then again, they were all fighters, their priorities changed, sometimes it was science, sometimes it was civilians, sometimes it was the thrill of the fight, revenge... Tony liked to think that he had something of Frigga's too, but it wasn't enough to love his father unconditionally after all this time and his protective streak didn't save Obadiah either, although he was the closest thing he had to a family at the moment. He liked science and knowledge but he could betray his love for it in the name of justice, and even though he fought for justice, Tony didn't like to play fair and he never did, bending the law if it meant keeping Iron Man in his own hands.

Truth be told, there was nothing worth of worship in Tony's world. Hell, even his life's motto was basically that: Nothing is sacred. And if Tony thought carefully about it, most humans shared his point of view. Nothing was permanently sacred, sometimes it was love, sometimes it was oneself, sometimes it was philanthropy, sometimes it was genius... Because, as all labels, there wasn't a system to divide humans into neat categories.

Tony dreaded to think what his new discovery meant in the light of Norse mythology.

The Vikings had a god for atheists; a walking paradox. No wonder he was considered the God of Chaos. The very concept of him was negated by itself: Loki. There was no archaeological proof of worship to that particular god, but there didn't need to be one if his followers didn't consider him sacred.

Oh, damn, and it was Tony's life motto, a life of devotion towards laughing at things others held as sacred: money, the value of human life, religion, the limits of known science... He had challenged them all. He was Loki's, both in heart and soul (if that last one even existed). Strangely, if he had been a religious man he would say that he had had a revelation, a kind of enlightenment, a moment of clarity, a private chit chat with God Himself. Unfortunately, and as he had just discovered, that wasn't his kind of god. Also, his god was technically dead in a different planet, not to mention he used to be murderous and out of his mind.

It was kind of a disappointment, because Thor was so similar to the kind of god that the papers before him painted. Loki, on the other hand, looked more like a cry for help. In fact, Tony represented what the name "Loki" meant much better than the god himself.

A ringing laugh sounded and Tony was startled out of his considerations. He looked at the red-haired man that was standing before him -making the lab behind him blurr by sheer presence- with a worrying smile dancing mischievously on his lips. He had a nice suit and sunglasses, instead of Norse regalia, maybe just to follow through with the "expect the unexpected" vibes that he seemed to ooze. He also had a devil-may-care look to him and a sardonic jut to his jaw that made him look like he had just been proven right.

"I am Loki." Tony heard himself murmur. There was his revelation, getting him in more trouble than he needed. "I am you. I am yours."

The man, the god, approached him, and the gesture was welcoming. "It was about time you realized. I have not been exactly subtle. Or did you think chaos just followed you?" his voice was rough, but it didn’t lack a melody. He stepped back again and walked the space.

Tony was a science man, but he was also well versed in bending science, witnessing the impossible and outright creating miracles of progress, so he had no trouble believing what he had before him. He simply didn't understand it yet.

The god Loki moved like fire, but in no logical way, like those japanese ghost films, but in a more... predictable pattern that made him far less creepy. Tony couldn't help feeling devotion and admiration flowing in waves to the lively figure that inspected his lab. There was not an ounce of worship, but the god in front of him meant as much as his life.

"I see you are speechless,” he said touching the interface of a very delicate nano-welder. “Fortunately for you, I can wait."

Tony was not speechless. He stood and he walked to the creature, the actual god, the thing that made the memory of Thor feel small and closer to a human being. Tony got very, very close to him, catching the god’s attention, forgetting all the notions of personal space that he never learnt; so close that he could smell the chemicals burning, take away the sunglasses and look into eyes that were large as life and deep as the mysteries of the universe. And in there he could see humans, devoting to Loki every second of doubt in their hearts, all the fears in their faiths, all the ones who threw away what they were told and embraced Loki's ways unknowingly. Deep-rooted in there, Tony saw his life, from the first breath of air to his last exhalation. Again and again, in cycles, like tides, like...

"Iterations." The creature said, and his voice carried ideas and a firm refusal of any kind of stability. Eternal truths quivered in synchrony with that voice. Anything could be true, there were no frontiers, physic laws were there to be broken by that voice.

Tony was mesmerized by it all, and he didn't relent a single inch, enjoying the thrill of every second of closeness.

And the god let him, with some kind of smirk chiselled on his features that managed to be mocking and fond at the same time.

"What is the Loki I met?" Tony could hear himself asking, in a daze.

"Potentially, my avatar, my embodiment. But as you said, you come much closer to being it."

“Or maybe you have too much of me.” Tony pulled at the lapels of the… thing’s… suit.

“You think so…” The creature caressed his forehead lightly with a finger, and Tony felt fear, because that meant something, something bad for Tony Stark, human. Maybe it meant that Tony had to leave to let in something greater than himself. “But you have not yet seen what this Loki could have been.” The thing's gesture twisted, peeved.

He took the finger away and Tony wondered if he had done something wrong. Tony reached to touch the fiery hair and the god let him, so maybe it was not him he was pissed at. But the hair, it hurt, cut his fingers open and stained the already red hair a shade darker, but the pain was laced... Braided, with so many other things, the thrill of learning the unknown, relishing in going one step further, doing what was not meant to be done... and it scurried through his fingers leaving behind scars and blisters that healed quickly.

“I was never meant to be Loki, the brother of Thor,” Loki rued.

“No, you were always meant to be more than any Ass. You were a Jotun and a god of fire, the one who took and gave, the one who mocked and was mocked, villain and hero: a living contradiction.” Tony was not prone to literature or poetry, so he wasn’t sure of where all that came from, he only knew he could feel the words as if they were written somewhere inside his being.

The creature smiled fondly again. “That I am, and so much more my little phoenix, you, splinter of my branch. But not now.”

“Wait, in the stories,” Tony blinked in confusion and with a little clarity. “Are your children not sacred to you?”

The creature contemplated Tony and hummed. “If fates had given me the children of those stories, I would have loved them with abandon. They would have been my treasure and my world, and their loss would have pained me like no other.” Tony used his pause to look at his lips, tense, but ready to spin a tale if it was needed. “But don’t confuse loving with all I am with worship. You read those stories. I felt the pain and I went on without them. I didn’t wither and die. My life didn’t stop even though I wish it would.”

There was silence again and Tony lost himself in freckles that the alien Loki didn’t have. He remembered all the stories of shapeshifting and wondered if this look was something that had been taken from the living Loki as well. “Who did this to you?”

“Odin thinks himself so clever.” The Loki creature chuckled. “Taking me from Jotunheim, the path the Norns forged for me. As if that would make me any less indomitable.”

“It was not a nice path.” Tony said, remembering the thread and the lips, and the snake, and all the children…

“It is the reward for bringing change to a stale land. It is a dubious honor, but as you were thinking before, those stories are skewed. There would have been great moments in it too.” Loki paused to cup Tony's cheek and Tony felt himself drown in pleasure but also mistakes, never regretting either for long. 

“I’ve been trying to exist within Loki, but Odin has made it impossible, twisting his life until he was nothing like me, so far from me... an empty shell. I'm tired of prolonging his life only to have calamities take it away from him again.

“He needs help to stop. Have you seen it yet?” the Loki creature challenged.

“ _Stop_.” Tony stayed silent while he put his thoughts in order. It was easy, even in the middle of that whirlwind. He knew the stream that flowed from those eyes and that seemed to have made Tony into their riverbed; and now he knew the chorus of that flow. “Stop turning himself into something he is not. Stop following Odin’s path, Thor’s steps, Frigga’s shadow, Thanos’ puppet…” Tony wasn’t sure of who Thanos was, but he knew it was true. “He needs to stop keeping pedestals. He was meant to be irreverent and so he has to stop revering. He learnt to despise the warrior’s way, but he has to learn to be indifferent towards it. He learnt to be unmoved by lies and use them only as much as truths, and he needs now to also stop revering magic.”

The creature holding Tony hummed satisfied. “I’m watching him, and he is starting to realize who he is, but he will need a reminder when doubt comes knocking again.” The creature put a stray hair away from Tony’s face and the mortal smelled the stench of burnt hair even though the hand seemed to be freezing cold. “I will need to be there then; some part of me needs to be there when that happens.”

“You are leaving?” Tony protested.

“And you are not even going to remember me,” the creature said with unfair good humor.

“What?!” Tony pressed himself closer. “NO!”

“You would be of no use if my memory kept you this way,” he laughed at Tony’s obvious and irrational pinning. “But I’ll leave you a pointer of how to get me back. Would you like that?” He tempted.

Tony nodded eagerly, like a scholar who was offered a sip from the well of knowledge.

“Then save Loki.” Tony blinked, not fully understanding the request, but already planning how to build a time-travel machine. "Make him the god he is meant to be. Keep him chaotic and unpredictable: untamed. And I'll be in him for you."

Finally, Tony couldn’t figure out a way of working around Loki’s demise. “But he is…”

“Alive, despite his latest effort at following Thor's steps at being a self sacrificing idiot when there are other ways," he said exasperated. "Loki is ruling Asgard right now, he is shady and manipulative; the wrong ways for a good reason, as it is meant to be. A time will come when his plots fail, when his doubts will threaten with overwhelming him once more and you must be there to prevent his final fall from grace."

“The paradox again:” Tony said softly. “He who doubts everything must have unwavering faith in his doubts.”

“Now let me go so I can stay.” Tony widened a smile when he realized the creature was right, Tony was doing something unconsciously and even though he didn’t know how, or in what plane of existence, the Loki before him was at his mercy as much as Tony was at his.

It was not mind control, although mind had a lot to do with it, but there was no point in exploring the feeling if he was going to forget, as the Loki before him suggested. So he enjoyed the snaps and the intense contrast as he stepped back both physically and in that other… plane? dimension?...metaphor?

And Tony looked on at the blank space where his eyes had been roaming while he thought that he had more of the document's Loki than Loki himself. The thought, the revelation, sat ill with him. As if the idea contradicted an old memory of how the world was supposed to be. Of course Tony couldn’t leave the feeling well alone; apparently he was a follower of Loki, when did Loki’s followers do as expected?

“Jarvis, pull all the pictures you have of Loki, and Thor, and other aliens recognized in human religions."

He felt oddly right, all in all, weird revelations included. He felt like someone had invented a way to distill life and he had just had a huge lungful of it.

Odd.

But welcomed.

***

The creature-Loki turned his eyes from the almost-amnesiac follower and regarded the lonely occupant of Asgard’s throne with the melancholic air behind the proud mask. It was unbecoming, that Byronic and sad antihero that he had been pushed to be. Now things would change; a trickster once again. He only needed a few more touches to avoid both the Norns and Odin. Pity to those who dared to cage him in any manner, for not even destiny was a fixed point for him and those bold enough to believe in him.

***

As the Loki-creature predicted (but nobody remembered) mischief escalated. Tony figured out where was Loki, but he didn't tell. The secret paths were rediscovered and used once again by at least one human and one Jotun. Loki discovered the human posing as an Asgardian but he didn’t expose Tony. Thanos discovered them both, but he played the long game to use their secrets against them. Tony planned to force Loki to share his plans while Loki planned how to make the human do his bidding without showing his hand.

Then one time Tony managed to sneak into the royal chambers hidden as a servant, but he found them empty of Loki and incriminating proof, since Loki had chosen that moment to be sneakily waiting in Tony’sAsgardian hideout to put a fresh-woven spell on him. Both went back frustrated and empty-handed.

But that was nothing compared to the time they found each other, completely by chance, in the public baths, surrounded by people and unwilling to put at risk their respective covers, instead sending each other careful glances across the bathhouse. Loki as Odin distracted from his conversation with the lord before him and Tony disinterested in the chat he was having with one of the many friends he had managed to make in the short time in the realm.

The creature Loki was deeply pleased by their shenanigans. That was how his essence made flesh was supposed to live, with tricks, preposterous plans, a dash of imprudence, and a complex web of bad luck and good luck and the luck he made for himself. Soon he would be able to exist within him, them, again. Not much would happen to them, but the creature would stop roaming the void, and they would be much harder to knock down. But they were not ready yet, there was one piece missing.

Not passion, not sex, as one might think, since they were kidnapped together by mistake. Loki had decided to pay some miscreants to take Tony into custody (since it couldn’t be done legally), the ruffians were taking too long and Loki suspected they had taken the first half of their payment and run.

Loki took matters into his own hands and went to Tony’s quarters to lure him in, disguised as a young sweet thing of indeterminate gender. It worked too, Tony was distracted even though the disguise hadn’t fooled him for a second, but that was exactly what the lowlifes had been waiting for. It played in Loki’s favor, because Tony was sure the kidnapping was because of Loki and not him.

Still, it had been just the two of them, close quarters, some boredom, and a healthy dose of “what could go wrong?”. It had been just a short nothing to pass time until they had the means to escape; a fork, a spark of magic… but they had realized they were having more fun than they should when the criminals opened the door mid-affair and they didn’t bother with stopping but shouted to close the damned door for twenty more minutes.

They had escaped a few hours later (and so Loki got out of paying the second half of the job). Loki had to admit he had been tempted to hire the bunch of airheads again to repeat the whole thing. Instead, Tony had studied Aesir Law and had broken one of the palace statues, which meant a few days in Asgard’s cells, and the perfect opportunity for Loki to visit if he wanted. And, oh had Loki travelled the stairs to the cells those days.

So that was not the missing piece, and it wasn’t even trust. That one started to grow reluctantly when Tony had stopped an assassination attempt during a centenary celebration of this or that. Thor and the Avengers had been present and still Tony had stepped in front of a spell aimed at Odin. The reactor he had taken to wearing when in Asgard (because magic enemies abounded) had dispelled the attack.

Loki had decided in that moment that letting the human know more could only lead to an improvement of his plan and his survival chances

***

The Loki creature was particularly amused by that time when a jab about multiple performances in a night during sex had led to experiments. They had decided that if a whole apple meant the lifespan of a god, a proportional piece the size of a human life would offer Tony the opportunity to feel like a god without any side effects. Just to err in the side of caution, they had taken only half the dose. Loki offered a “taste of godhood” with a smirk, and a merry time was had by all that night.

But oh the next morning! The following days Tony and Loki drowned in panic when Tony started to get very sick. The first thing to go was his libido, but soon followed his appetite, his strength and he seemed to be aging incredibly fast. It took them three terrible days to realize that those were the withdrawal symptoms of the Golden Apple. As with any other drug, withdrawal launched the opposite neural impulses depending on the original effects of the drug.

So Tony had developed an addiction after one dose, and even though they seemed to have it under control with a tiny apple bit every now and then, Tony needed doses more and more frequently. Neither said a word, but sometimes they looked at each other and they knew that situation was only ever going to get worse. They didn’t have a solution, and they were about to say their last goodbyes when the addiction ended on its own, making them twice as confused.

The Loki creature had laughed loudly during that one. He had wondered if they’d discover that it stopped because Tony had finally eaten a whole apple and was not human anymore. It wasn’t likely that it would come up anytime soon.

Amusing as it was, neither disorientation nor the growing realization of how scared they were of losing the other were the missing pieces. The last change happened exactly when Loki the creature was expecting it and for the reason he was expecting it: Tony Stark. He had not put that piece in the board without reason.

***

Thanos had reached them, and he had managed to slip Loki’s defenses by attacking his open flank: Stark. It seemed not even those bent on breaking the meaning of ‘normal’ were safe from such a common trope, but they were excused from the lack of good taste and finesse, because Thanos was the one being completely unoriginal. Of course he made the threat everyone was expecting.

“I see what you have built, I see your spiderweb, little trickster, but I’m not just any fly. I will tear through your defenses. I have numbers, technology and fate on my side. You have your tricks, but I have an army.”

“We still have a hulk.” Tony said from somewhere behind where Thanos had him trapped and on display.

Loki couldn’t hold a grin for his intended, dire as their situation was; with Tony trapped, Loki out of touch with his many resources and the big, big evil just in front of him. True, they had maneuvered so Thanos didn’t have immediate access to his resources either, but that wasn’t much in the face of his threats.

“I have a deal for you, godling. Unravel your useless web and your mortal will live, he’ll have a place in my ranks.”

“And why would he accept that?” Tony said sardonically while Loki stayed quiet and a little ashen. “Undo our work so I live? Under your yolk? What kind of stupid deal is that?”

“He will accept.” Thanos said confidently. “Because he is starting to understand what is his other option. I promised him the worst imaginable pain. But that doesn’t mean I have to inflict it on him.”

Tony could feel Loki’s fear then, and if he knew Loki well enough, well, he had no idea of what Loki would choose, that has the whole point of Loki. But they had been talking about exactly this: traps and being a hero or not, and the meaning of goodness and selfishness. The subject of the conversation had been Steve Rogers, but the point was the same. It scared Tony more than Thanos’ threats.

“Loki, Loki I know you, don’t do something stupid, don’t play the hero. You and I, we were never meant to be heroes.”

“I’m sorry.” Loki said, feeling it.

***

The Loki creature thrived with it. Not because of the apology on itself, but because that apology was completely unexpected. Loki the creature couldn’t live in a predictable avatar. What was the point of living if nothing was a surprise?

Now, though, now he could live in Loki, and in his bond with Tony Stark, and he could have a hand manipulating his fate, keeping the worst strikes of tragedy as far as inhumanly possible. He approached the open way and merged with the smaller Loki. Meeting Odin later would be fun.

***

“Excuse me? Why? Why sorry?”

“I can only play the hero and the villain. And I don’t want to be trapped in this two-way labyrinth without an exit.” Loki ignored Thanos completely, talking to Tony as if they had never finished that conversation about heroes. “If I let you die, I’m the tragic hero who lost his lover. If I help you, I am the classic hero who chooses love over the whole world. At the same time, I can only be the villain who chooses his lover, selfishly, and opens the door to destruction, or I can be the villain with the cold heart who prefers to pursue his plans instead of saving his lover.”

“But…” In their discussions, Tony had repeated many times that Loki didn’t need to be a hero or a villain, but this situation seemed to prove him wrong.

“And If I refuse to choose, I’m you, Tony. The real hero, who refuses to pick his fights and somehow gets away with everything. Neither is my path, and there is only another last resort.” Loki the creature smirked for himself. Yes, Loki couldn’t take that kind of risk, because until now, fate had been against him. He would lose it all if he wagered carelessly, unlike Stark.

“HA!” Thanos interrupted, probably because he wasn’t used to being ignored for so long. “Are you going to turn your back to both your human and the worlds, for a story? Just to escape a fairy tale?”

“That was never an option for me either. But this is: I offer you a different kind of deal, one which will make you greater than anyone has dared to think, I offer you a way to have so much power that the Nine will be but a distant thought.”

“Why, if you can grant me this, have you not used it on yourself?” Thanos asked, rightly suspicious.

“Because I’m the godling you said I was. I’m tethered to these realms, and such grandiose power can’t exist in a mind that wants the smaller things I want. I want to be able to feel and experience all that I own, and this spell is so powerful that all that I consider now important will be meaningless. A concept so big that can encompass all of reality, so big that it exists in every particle.”

Tony looked at Loki in understanding but also disbelief.

“That is only the power of the stones, godling, and I’m about to have those.”

“Yes, you are, but that is a power that can eventually be taken from you. _This_ , this would be part of you.” Loki waved the spell in front of him to emphasize his point. There were numbers and equations all around sigils. Thanos followed his progress with greedy eyes.

“THIS? This is it?” he roared when Loki finished. “This is too simple, trickster, this can’t be but a move to make me lose my time. So choose.”

“No.” Loki waited until Thanos was willing to listen again. “You know enough about magic to see the truth in this spell. I’ve told you no lies. There is power here, and you see greatness there, and it can be done. The only drawback being you would consider the Nine too small a price, so you’d leave it alone. And that would be my reward for offering you this.”

“It is too simple.”

“Like all great things,” Loki paused for dramatic effect and Tony had to stop himself from laughing; a kid who knew the magictian’s trick. “it is simple as death.”

“I won’t be fooled, you said forgetting about the Nine would be your reward for offering me this. An offer is not an accomplished spell. You though I wouldn’t notice? I want this spell completed in exchange for your human’s life.”

“Free of you?”

“He will be one of my sons. His mind will be free, and that should be enough for you.”

“Free of freedom you mean.” Loki parroted again the demagogic words he had had to use in Midgard.

Thanos’ smile widened. “But I still don’t trust you, trickster. I see the truth in your spell, but I feel the lie in your words. I know this is a trap.”

“If you think it is a trap you can let go of this chance, but if it is as simple, petty and  useless as you think it is, I don’t see why you would bother avoiding it. As you said, you can go through the web we have built to defend ourselves, and you would burn it as if it was nothing. What scares you so much that you would not dare to face it head on? My spell is simple, and doesn’t require much energy. Are you the titan we are supposed to fear? Afraid of my little trick? Consider this just part of my web, if you can’t come out of this, you won’t survive the rest.”

Loki’s demeanour wasn’t supplicant, but daring in a young face, stubborn even with all the odds against them. It reminded Tony of Steve Rogers, again, and that was how Tony knew it was just an act. Thanos though, he didn’t stand a chance against that particular mask. He smiled self-sufficiently.

“We’ll see about surviving. Hit me with that spell.”

“It needs your binding word. Tony will live.”

“You still want to pretend this little trick will work? Fine. If your spell makes me as great as you said, he will live, I’m willing to give my word that he will be yours again. You can keep the Nine too if it pleases you.” He barked a laugh. “But when this trap doesn’t work, there won’t be mercy, for anyone.”

Loki avoided looking at the point behind Thanos where Tony had already escaped, and was touching holo-screens with a rocket launcher leaning against his leg. There was no need for his rush, because Thanos had accepted and Loki’s spell was reacting to the bonded word. It crept all over Thanos and with a maniac look of glee he disappeared.

Quite anticlimactic.

“Christ in a spaceship, Loki!” The human turned at Loki’s sigh of relief. “That was the equation I carved on the table during a tipsy night after… why was I showing you my non-Euclidean approach to dimensions again?” He walked back to him and away from the computers, but never letting go of the rocket launcher.

“First, I used it because its enormity is impressive compared to the relative simplicity of the concept. I only had to put in a small spark of magic to push him to the closest concept of a living thing that your theory postulated. Second, I believe you had just showed me one of your films, that _Men in Black_ , because you kept comparing New S.H.I.E.L.D. to it.”

“Oh, yeah. I remember, still a bad idea. I won’t forget you said science was impressive anytime soon by the way, or that you used a 90% of science to defeat that guy. So where is the old dinosaur now?”

“It depends on whether your theory is correct or not. He might be in a world where our universe is but a glass ball, or he might be in a universe as small as a locker, or, if your equation was wrong, dispersed as particles in the air we breathe.” Tony huffed through his nose with a pointed disgusted face, Loki ignored him and continued. “Wherever he is, he is gone, and must be great, as per my spell, and he is probably already killing his new home world, pestering their equivalent of you and I.”

“Fine, let’s leave this place while you explain me why, oh why, we have been rallying forces of nature and beyond _for ages_ if you have just gotten rid of the main baddie in the best reincarnation of the puss in boots I’ve seen?”

“His troops won’t stop just because he is gone.” Loki Teleported them outside and walked out of the interplanetary barrier. “He is known for coming back nearly as much as you and I.”

“And they don’t want to know what will happen to them if they don’t obey his last command.” Tony nodded looking at the sky where Thanos’ troops hovered, waiting for a signal that wouldn’t come.

“Quite so.” Loki looked at them too, preparing his next jump to a moon where they were expected. Well, their corpses were expected at least.

“Oh, well, we knew there would be a war. Let’s make this as clean as possible.” Tony gripped Loki’s waist, but the teleportation didn´t come. “What? You look worried.”

“I was just considering his tendency to come back.” Loki had a positive feeling, as if he had gained the perception of a new and brilliant dimension in the last minutes, but being too positive had never been good for him. A good feeling might mean something bad was just around the corner.

“C’mon Loki.” Tony shoved him a little. “He said it clearly:” Loki looked up at him. “There won’t be mercy for anyone.” His smile was not completely cruel but it wasn't innocent either. For a moment it let Loki regain his confidence and remember the perpetual edge where he, and lately Tony, played. It was home more than anything ever was.


End file.
